1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for teaching the various musical scales. The invention comprises a slide rule having a base and a cover with apertures, the cover sliding over the base to reveal musical notes in the apertures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Any student learning a musical instrument or studying music generally, must learn scales, chords and notes. These are the basis of the music theory upon which songs are arranged. A scale is a sequential series of tones, chords or notes. A scale covers an octave. The scale repeats for every octave. Tones are designated by the letters A, B, C, D, E, F and G. When each note repeats, an octave is complete. Each note represents a different sound frequency. The sound frequency difference between tones is given in steps, but the steps between each tone of A-G is not the same. There is a half step interval between B and C and between E and F, while there are whole step intervals between each of the other tones.
Each tone may be raised or lowered a one-half step. If a tone is raised or lowered, it is referred to as the accidental of the tone. When raised a half tone, it is known as a sharp and denoted by the ".music-sharp." sign. When a tone is lowered a half step, it is represented by a ".music-flat." sign. The natural tones are denoted by the letters A-G and correspond to the white piano keys and the accidentals F.music-sharp., G.music-sharp., A.music-sharp., C.music-sharp. and D.music-sharp., or G.music-flat., A.music-flat., B.music-flat., D.music-flat. and E.music-flat., correspond to the black piano keys.
Any major scale is based on the succession of the eight tones and constitutes steps of whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole and half. When the first tone is a C, the scale is known as a C major scale. Major scales can be constructed to begin with any of the tones, in order to be a major scale, the steps between the third and fourth tone and the seventh and eight tone are half steps. This is accomplished by using accidentals when necessary. As an example, the G major scale would be constructed to be G, A, B, C, D, E, F.music-sharp., G.
There are also minor scales. They are a succession of eight tones, but the steps between notes are whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole and whole. Like the major scale, minor scales can be constructed to begin with any tones using appropriate accidentals of the tones to maintain the proper step progression.
There are two major main variants of the minor scale, the harmonic minor scale and the melodic minor scale. The harmonic minor scale raises a seventh step to be a half step difference between the seventh and eighth step of the octave, whereas the melodic minor scale raises the sixth step when the melody is ascending, but the sixth and seventh are retort and natural when the melody is descending.
A contrast to the concept of a scale which is the sequence of individual notes, a chord is a simultaneous playing of more than one note. The major chord for any scale is the first, third and fifth note of that scale, played simultaneously.
Because scales, chords and progressions are the basis of music theory, students of music need to learn their intricacies. There is, therefore, a need for a device to help students visually learn the various components of music.
The prior art is replete with patents that have attempted to satisfy such need, but with limited success, at best.
To illustrate, U.S. Pat. No. 4,960,029 (Nelson) discloses a musical scale determining device having a slide rule configuration. A cursor 26 is moved along a body 17 to disclose a variety of music scales.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,893 (Fahnestock) discloses a musical note slide rule to display the musical note letter composition of scales for each of the 15 major keys and 15 minor keys. The slide rule also displays 16 sets of chords for each of the 15 chord letters.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,592,099 (Gibby) discloses a slide rule that may be in linear or circular form. Interval, comparative, major and minor chords and multiple chord combinations are displayed.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,832,252 (Gabriel) discloses a musical slide rule having a base and slidable cover. The cover is moved along the base to reveal various scales.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,791,254 (Muller) discloses a musical teaching aid having two bar members arranged on a slide rule. The upper member has a column of windows to view the symbols on the lower member. When a window is set on a basic key note, various harmonics may be read from the other windows.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,096 (Bull) discloses a musical computation device having alphabetical representation of musical notes, a representation of a keyboard and a representation of the finger positions on an instrument. The apparatus can be used to determine scales and variations thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,507 (Bezeau, Jr.) discloses a chord progression finder to determine each tone of a selected musical scale in a selected key note. Every tone of the relative musical scale, as well as various chords playable for the selected musical scale can be determined.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,522 (Hesnan) discloses a musical learning aid having a base and a sliding template provided with windows. The windows allow viewing of information printed on the base, the position of a window over a key note allows cut out slots of the template to show musical information before that key note scale and chord.
It is an object of the invention to provide a musical scale slide rule that is easy to use and inexpensive to manufacture.
It is another object of the invention to provide a musical scale rule that shows both major and minor scales simultaneously.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a musical slide rule that can be used to determine chords and including major chords, diminished chords or complex chords.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a musical slide rule that has separate sides for the sharp (.music-sharp.) and the flat (.music-flat.).
These and other objects of the invention will be come apparent after reading the full disclosure of the invention.